Hello, I'm new! My name is Stanley, I work for 140db studios in Chicago, and below is a digital matte painting for an animated sequence involving an interstellar spacecraft. I may animate the planet in Adobe After effects (some slow, behemoth-like planetary motion). It is for a demo reel I am working on, I'm pretty new to the 3d world, and I hope to continue posting here regularly.

It's photoshop 7 with a tablet:

http://svma.nigelhyde.com/assets/gallery/Bigmattespace.jpg

bigjko

08-27-2003, 09:58 PM

Wow, that's done in Photoshop?! Very nice!

Hope to see that animation some day! :D

ADiSH

08-27-2003, 10:07 PM

Amazing:drool:
im not sure if its to many stars or not;)

SVMaerospace

08-27-2003, 10:35 PM

Hee hee, you can never have too many stars :D

In fact, just for some cool image gawking, check out Hubble's star field photographs, Some of them are nothing but stars, not even nebula or anything, it looks like someone dumped sand onto a black canvas.

RavenLark

08-28-2003, 12:05 AM

I think there are a bit many stars in there. The light from the nebula is very bright, and theoretically would dim the stars around it.

If you're in the city, you know how the stars can't really be seen all that much at night due to the lights. If you're out in the country, you might have noticed how on a full moon, the stars around the moon can't be seen.

Just my 2 cents...

Garma

08-28-2003, 12:25 AM

agreed. way too much stars :shame:

the rest looks good :thumbsup:

bigbad

08-28-2003, 12:49 AM

Get rid of the awful white dots. Itīs ruining the picture.

Good luck with your demo reel.

starqueen

08-28-2003, 01:22 AM

Way too many stars and theyre too bright i think... the white circles? I don't know what those are... stars wouldnt have that large a variation in them unless it's the same galaxy's star/sun. They all look like tiny specs, hehe

I like space shots though and this one is good, the planet is very good. The nebula isn't very convincing for people who have studied or seen a lot of them... I'd like to see it worked on more! :)

SVMaerospace

08-28-2003, 01:40 AM

Thank you for the critique!

I had to make a balance between what I felt was asthetically appealing and what my scientific instincts told me made sense. My intended major is astrophysics (University of Chicago, baby! Yeah!) and I have spent a lot of time in observatories studying starscapes, and without the strong light of the closer stars, that is pretty much the density and variation of stars at a location near the center of the galaxy, towards the hub. I understand that can be attributed to long exposure times, but I didn't want to dim the stars despite the strong forground lightsource, so as to make it quite obvious where in the galaxy this scene is taking place. However I'll dim them slightly if you think it helps the scene out.

The white circles are dead stellar cores, clumps of white dwarfs that have gravitated towards this particular stellar neighborhood.

I agree that the nebula needs work though, I wasn't too satisfied with it the first time around so I'll give it another go. Again, thanks, I can tell this forum kicks serious buttocks.

betelgeuse

08-28-2003, 02:50 AM

Originally posted by RavenLark
The light from the nebula is very bright, and theoretically would dim the stars around it.

I don't think so because nebulae are just gas and dust, and as such are not a light source. The only reason you see them at all is because of the light from the stars. In fact, many nebulae are extremely faint; a lot of those beautiful astrophotographs you see of them are looonng exposures.

SVMaerospace

08-28-2003, 05:04 AM

Well, in any event the image has been changed significantly, and I think for the better. Take a look and tell me if you like it, hate it, or just can't see it:

http://svma.nigelhyde.com/assets/gallery/Bigmattespace2.jpg

EricUNSL

08-28-2003, 01:15 PM

I think you should adjust the brightness/contrast of the nebula in your updated painting. It competes too much with the foreground planets. Speaking of which, I would like the planets more if I hadn't already seen citylights on the shadow side of a planet in Star Wars I & II. That's the first thing that came to mind when I saw both versions and whoever looks at your reel will notice it too. Try to be more original or if you're gonna do something that is obviously film insipired, change it up a bit to make it unique. The digital matte artists at ILM did a much better job with a similar matte painting. If your serious, then those artists ( some freelance) are your direct competition when you send out your reel.

Good luck.

ADiSH

08-28-2003, 01:16 PM

i like this one better:drool:
its blue:D

EatZ

08-30-2003, 01:17 PM

I'm a big fan of space-scapes, and this is certainly one of the better ones I've seen lately!

One crit:

Your space is very blue. I love your choice of blue, but when I think space, I think of the infinite blackness. Perhaps have more black showing through, even if only in a few places. The stars certainly hint at it being space, but the amount of blue kinda detracts from the scale of the planets and flattens it out a bit.

Only my opinions, but all in all... WOW... I love your work! Please make some more!

KrotArt

08-30-2003, 03:57 PM

:beer:

SVMaerospace

08-30-2003, 04:00 PM

Here is an update, the planet looks like a bowling ball with those giant planet drive engines (don't ask me to explain the scientific principles of this, it's purely fantastic in nature).

You know, I like the blackness idea, totally dig it, I think I will do that for the interstellar travel sequences, here is the image:

http://svma.nigelhyde.com/assets/gallery/Bigmattespace3.jpg

gunslingerblack

08-30-2003, 11:39 PM

stan the man, you've done it again you know i love ur work and you kno what i gotta say about it, when u actually animate the scene make sure you animate the exhaust comin out of the planet for that extra effect

EatZ

08-31-2003, 12:14 AM

Your latest revision is excellent. The planet actually LOOKS like it's being lit by the nebula too. Makes me wonder what it'd be like to look up at the sky during a day on that planet. ;)

Keep up the good work!

inframicrobe

08-31-2003, 12:09 PM

Oh...good job!! I think the secundus star is better than first. But I like that color is first.:thumbsup:

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